In Desai v. Caresource Inc., ___ N.E.3d ___, C.A. No. 29965, 2024 WL 3738457 (Ohio Ct. App., 2d Dist., Aug. 9, 2024), the defendant health insurer was sued for multiple claims and causes of action:
In March 2018, Plaintiffs filed a class action complaint for damages and declaratory and equitable relief against CareSource. The complaint alleged that Plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated individuals, sought redress for CareSource's violation of [a pair of Ohio Statutes] and for CareSource's breach of contract, insurance bad faith, negligent misrepresentation, constructive fraud, and unjust enrichment.
Desai, 2024 WL 3738457, ¶ 3, at p. *1 (emphasis added).
The trial court denied class certification of the following class proposed in the complaint and granted defendant’s motion to strike the class allegations; the appellate court reversed and remanded for further proceedings, leaving it to those further proceedings where the following class will or may be certified:
All Ohio residents who purchased CareSource's Ohio Just4Me health insurance plans since 2014.
Desai, 2024 WL 3738457, ¶ 30, at p. *6.
Depending on the outcome in the “further proceedings,” of course, the Desai case may end up going to trial as a class action for insurance bad faith, among other things, against the defendant health insurance plan provider.
Note that the Ohio appellate court pointed out in this case that the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure governing class action practice are based on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and are therefore to be consulted for guidance, along with the federal case law interpreting them. It may well be that the obverse will become true here, and that federal courts might well consult State Court decisions like Desai for guidance in interpreting the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which address class action procedure.
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